Dudley Days
by The Leopardess
Summary: Dudley is off to Smeltings! We've heard all there is to hear about Harry, now it's time for Dudley's story. Hit 'em with your Smeltings Stick, Dudley!
1. Dudley Arrives at Smeltings

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any material contained herein, save the plot. 

**_1. _****_Dudley_****_'s Arrival at Smeltings_**

Dudley woke up one early September morning to the sound of his mother's voice. That sickly-sweet, highly-irritating voice that nevertheless always managed to make him feel loved. 

"Good morning, my little Duddykins! I've made you an extra special breakfast this morning! So up and up, Dudders!" She smiled happily and bustled down to the kitchen. 

Dudley rolled his eyes and smiled happily. She was a strange mother, but she always gave him everything he wanted, and bucketloads of affection besides! Dudley swung himself out of bed with a loud thump and trundled down to the kitchen.

The table was decked out with all the food one could imagine. Sausages, bacon, fired eggs, boiled eggs, poached eggs, fried tomatoes, ketchup, pancakes, waffles, maple syrup, toast, raspberry jam – the works! His mother had really gone to town on this meal. 

"Thanks mum!" he said thickly through a mouthful of waffle and maple syrup, holding a sausage in one hand and half a waffle in the other. 

"Nothing's too good for my little Duddykins!"

"Yes, eat up Dudley-me-boy! You'll need your strength for your first day at Smeltings!" It was only then that Dudley realised that his father was also sitting at the table, smiling at him proudly from across the pancakes. 

Dudley managed to eat most of the food on the table before he was full. When he took the last bite of his fried tomato and smiled contentedly, his mother bustled around him. 

"Now Duddykins! You must go put your uniform on!" her eyes brimmed with tears, "my little boy – all grown up!" she said chokingly. 

Dudley smiled and walked loudly up the stairs, into his room where his mother had thoughtfully laid out his Smeltings uniform on his bed for him. Dudley affectionately picked up his Smeltings stick and whacked it around his head, pretending to hit people. Then he took off his large blue pyjamas with trucks on them and donned his uniform. 

Standing in front of the mirror, brandishing the Smeltings stick, Dudley admired himself. The maroon tailcoats really brought out the blue in his eyes, and the orange knickerbockers accented his legs. The little hat (which his mother had told him was called a boater) was the only thing that looked really wrong. It was so dinky and girly. Sitting there so small on his head, it made him look…. Fat! People at school had called him fat before. His mother had just cried indignantly, told him that he "just had big bones," and had given him a big hug, his father had said that it was muscle, and people were only jealous of how strong he looked, Dudley and his friends had bashed the living daylights out of them. 

And Harry… Harry would have been one of those "jealous" kids who'd call him a fat tub of lard, and then run like hell. Dudley and his friends had beaten up Harry quite frequently for such misdemeanours. But no! Dudley was not going to think about his unwelcome cousin on his special day. His first day at Smeltings. 

Still, as he walked out his bedroom door, his hands crept quietly around to his backside, touching the small scar where his… - he would not say tail – ..had been removed. Oh how his mother had cried when she'd seen it, and how angry his father had been! For Dudley it had been the most traumatic experience of his life. The scar still ached if he sat down too long, and he would simply DIE if the students at Smeltings found out!

He pushed the painful memory from his mind and went into the kitchen. His mother gave a joyful cry and hugged Dudley as hard as she could, telling him again how incredibly proud she was. 

The car trip down was exciting enough. Dudley played his game-boy while his father gave him advice on various aspects of school life, from making the "right" kind of friends to standing up for yourself and putting younger students in their place. Dudley was only half-listening though, as he had to concentrate hard on getting past a particularly difficult level in the new game his parents had bought him for a first-day-of-school present. 

When they eventually arrived at Smeltings, Petunia was a mess of nerves, and kissed Dudley several hundred times before he got out of the car. As much as he loved his mother, Dudley wasn't about to let her kiss him in front of everyone on his first day. She sat in the car while Dudley and his father clambered out. Vernon took Dudley's things from the car and put them on the sidewalk. 

"Good man," Vernon said gruffly, as Dudley put his school bag on his back and picked up his luggage, "you'll make us proud."

Dudley smiled back at his father, looked through the window and smiled at his mother, who was now in tears, then turned around and walked into the courtyard of Smeltings. 

A/N That's the first chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! After reading about a hundred fanfics last night I decided that there aren't enough about the "bad guys." I'm not talking about Draco and Lucius, 'cos there's heaps about them (and I'm NOT complaining!), but Crabbe, Goyle and good ol' Dudley just don't get the credit they deserve! This story is the way I see Dudley being, if he was a truly developed character (instead of just the token villain, mean cousin, used to show how bad Harry's home life is "character" – and I use the term loosely.) Please review, always thrilled to hear from you! Please, do give me advice, especially on my story-writing style. Say anything you like to this story, it's the only way I'll learn. Thanks guys, and the next chapter will be in, hopefully within the week. 


	2. The Hall

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any material contained herein, save the plot. 

**_2. The Hall_**

****

Smeltings was a magnificent place. The stone courtyard sported many large trees and shrubberies. The building itself was also stone, the entrance was a massive archway and Dudley was somewhat overwhelmed by the size of it. It seemed like a foreboding place, but then Dudley supposed all new schools do, to some degree. 

Dudley stood in the courtyard with a large trunk in each hand, a bag on his back and a funny looking boater on his head, looking quite lost. He was looking around at all the people when he felt a SMACK on his behind. 

Dudley whipped around to see his assailant. 

"Hullo Dudley!" said Piers, "have a good holiday?"

"Good enough," Dudley said, carefully not mentioning the - tail - incident. 

"Is that runty cousin of yours around? I want to try out this Smeltings stick!"

"Ha! He come to Smeltings? My dad would chain him to a railway track first! Nah, he's gone to some… other school."

"Really? What one?"

Dudley shifted, not wanting to think about Harry. "Like I know! Now, um, where do I put my stuff?"

"Here," said Piers, "I'll show you."

And show him he did, and by that time the bell had rung and an ocean of maroon tailcoats and orange knickerbockers walked through the Smeltings archway and into the hall. 

The hall was incredible. Made up from large stone bricks it was resplendent in orange banners that hung from the ceiling and over a raised platform at the far end. There were seats on the platform, and Dudley supposed this was where the teachers sat. Facing the platform were 50 long wooden benches, one placed in front of the other. 

Seven of the rows closest to the platform were reserved for the first years, shown by a large brown "1" written on a banner which hung above them. Dudley and Piers walked down to one of the benches in the middle of the designated section. Piers sat next to a strange little blonde boy with some kind of respiratory issue that meant he breathed in a heavy, bubbly, snuffling way that made Dudley both disgusted and aggravated. He would have happily hit him over the head with the Smeltings stick, but Piers was in the way. Piers himself seemed to be having similar thoughts, his hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists in suppressed rage. 

Just after a thick, choked cough escaped from the sickly blonde boy, Dudley felt someone sit next to him. He looked quickly around to make sure it wasn't another heavy breather and found himself face to face with a boy with well-combed dark brown hair, brown eyes and a big smile. 

"Hello!" the boy said cheerfully. " My name's Malcom, what's yours?"

"Dudley," said Dudley.

"What a name!" said Malcom. "I reckon you need a nickname. How's about Dud? Can I call you Dud?"

"Sure," said Dudley slowly. He wasn't too sure about this Malcom. He looked like a good enough person to befriend, and certainly the wrong sort of person to be on the wrong side of. Malcom was quite thick-set and strong-looking. His eyes looked both intelligent and witty, but Dudley had little doubt that they could turn hard when he was angry. Malcom looked down at his wrist watch, and Dudley noticed simultaneously that the watch was top-of-the-market and that his hands were large and powerful, looking as if they'd wrapped around not a few scrawny necks. Yes, this was just the kind of friend to make if he didn't want to be beaten up at this school. 

Dudley suddenly made up his mind and stuck out his right hand. "Hello Malcom! Nice to meet you."

Malcom appraised the hand, then shook it firmly, smiling. "Right back at you! Oh, look – they're getting underway."

He was right. A long line of teachers filed in from the right and took their seats on the platform, each wearing expressions with various degrees of sterness. The one sitting on the far left looked the meanest of all, peering over his glasses with thin, brown hair slicked back and a brown tweed suit. He was wearing the most foreboding scowl that Dudley found himself shivering involuntarily. 

"I say! Look at that man on the left! Nasty looking fellow, isn't he?" Malcom whispered to Dudley. 

"Wouldn't want to cross _him_," Dudley agreed. 

"Oh, I don't know," said Piers from Dudley's other side, "I dare say it would be fun!" Piers was always the troublemaker. 

With the teachers all sitting, a final man stepped out from the right. He was wearing a black expensive-looking suit and held out a book in his left hand. A hush descended across the hall and the man stepped up to a podium and stood facing the students. 

He coughed quietly, then spoke in a firm voice. "Good afternoon all, and welcome to Smeltings. I am your headmaster Mr. Marrum. First of all we need to sort you all out and get you settled into your dormitories. So will first years please follow Mr. Richards into the third courtyard? Thank you Mr. Richards."

Mr. Richards stood up and directed the first years through a door near the front and out a corridor into a large open space which was apparently the third courtyard. 

"Now," said Mr. Richards in a nervous voice, "are you all here? Right. I am Mr. Richards, and I will be your form leader for this year. Right." He wrung his hands and ran them through his greying hair. "Right. We have dormitories of four boys each, so, all arrange yourselves into groups of four!"

This seemed an odd way of working things, as nobody knew each other yet, but they eventually worked it out. Dudley stood in a small group with Piers and Malcom, and a boy who had joined them at the last moment. He had dusty blonde hair and large shoulders, and introduced himself as Gordon. They had thankfully shaken off the annoying boy with the breathing problem. He was standing in a group of snivelling boys to their right. 

"All in groups? Good, good. Right. Now, we have four houses in this school, and everyone belongs to one of them. All the boys in a dormitory together are in the same house. The houses are Gold, Silver, Ruby and Sapphire. So, all the people in this area – you're Gold, this area –" he marked out the area with his arms, "Silver, you lot are Ruby and the rest are Sapphire. Right, now, follow me!" 

Dudley was shocked to find himself in Ruby. He much rather be in Gold, not that he supposed it mattered much. 

Mr. Richards led the students up to the Dormitory area. There was a building for each year, containing several floors. The first floor was the common room, the second was Gold, third was Silver, fourth Ruby and the last was Sapphire. The students all separated at Mr. Richards request into the floor set out for them. 

The Ruby floor opened up from the stairs as a long corridor covered in dark red carpet and lined with doors. Dudley and his roommates took the last one on the left, labelled R14 – Ruby First Years Number Four. 

A/N. Well, that's chapter two. I don't know if I like the last bit, it's a bit too factual and not enough with characters. Just trying to get the building set-up out of the way, so the setting is clear for the rest of the story. Let me know if you have any ideas about what the school and the teachers should be like, especially school-life, seeing as I do not go to a British Boarding School, I'm kind of just making it up. Keep reading, I hope you're enjoying it so far, and please review! Thanks guys. 


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